Urgent! President Obama: The Path to Israeli-Palestinian Peace Doesn't Run Through the UN

Support for Israel at the United Nations has been longstanding policy of the United States, which consistently has vetoed U.N. resolutions deemed damaging to Israel and blocked efforts to unilaterally establish a Palestinian state. President Barack Obama eloquently stated in his 2011 address to the U.N. General Assembly, “Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations…. Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians—not us—who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them….”

We applaud that enduring commitment to fairness for Israel, but find troubling recently reported statements by U.S. officials indicating this policy could shift in the coming weeks before President Obama leaves the White House. Specifically, we are concerned that the U.S. will support a U.N. resolution either unilaterally establishing a Palestinian state or dictating terms for the creation of such a state.

Any attempt to impose a solution to the conflict at the U.N. or to predetermine the status of disputed territories would result in a flawed plan that will neither bridge longtime divisions nor forge any permanent solution. Instead, it would destroy any incentive for Palestinian leaders to negotiate in good faith with Israel. Moreover, if statehood is declared without Palestinian leaders formally recognizing Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, the nascent state would inevitably become a launchpad for terrorist activities.

This would further endanger the security of Israel, a country that President Obama in those same remarks at the U.N. poignantly described as already under siege: “Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses…. Israel…look[s] out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map.”

As citizens of goodwill representing all stripes of the American political spectrum, we the undersigned are unified in strongly urging the United States not to pivot from its policy that only direct negotiations between the parties will achieve a lasting peace. The U.S. should neither propose nor allow passage of any Security Council resolutions seeking to impose unilateral terms upon Israel.

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President Obama: The Path to Israeli-Palestinian Peace Doesn't Run Through the UN